


Olive Branches

by melethnin



Category: All Elite Wrestling, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, POV Outsider, Trying to be a good friend, kota is hard to read sometimes hence the drama, this is just fluff disguised as drama, you know... kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 13:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melethnin/pseuds/melethnin
Summary: Things had settled after Dominion and while everyone seemed ecstatic, Matt was still not too sure of Ibushi's real intentions.
Relationships: Ibushi Kota/Kenny Omega
Kudos: 43





	Olive Branches

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched bullet club is fine era bte and got really sad, so this happened

He didn’t know how to feel about all of this right now. 

They were leaving the ring, just getting finished with the celebration of their new champion. 

So, sure, they had all hugged each other, and they had hoisted Kenny up on their shoulders. And it was nice to not be fighting with Kenny anymore for a moment. But when Kenny smiled down fondly at Ibushi and ruffled his hair, it hit him again. 

Matt didn’t get it. 

Matt didn’t get them. 

Matt didn’t understand why Kenny cared so much about a guy that acted so cold and distant toward him for so long. Matt had been there for all these years when they were not together, okay. Why did Kenny let him back into his life so easily?

Ibushi just kept ignoring him back then, no matter what Kenny tried to do. And now Kenny was looking at Ibushi with hearts in his eyes like nothing happened, while Ibushi seemed completely oblivious to it. It was probably on purpose too. 

Matt’s skepticism grew. 

When they started working together a couple of years ago, Matt didn’t notice it at first. Mostly because Kenny just never talked about Ibushi. Ever. As a matter of fact, there were never even any throwaway lines about his previous years working here in Japan, after he left the American scene for good. 

But after you spend enough time with a person, no matter who it was, you couldn’t help notice a few things. 

When AJ successfully defended his title against Ibushi in early 2015, the one where Kenny jumped on the apron to distract him for the sake of the Bullet Club, Kenny seemed kind of spaced out after the finishing sequence. 

When Matt and his brother tried to check up on him afterwards in the locker room, Kenny was nowhere to be found. When they cornered one of the Young Lions and demanded an answer, they were told that he had left the arena already. 

That was when Matt started to get suspicious. 

So. Kenny didn’t talk about relationships or family. Sure, he was listening when one of them was talking about their wives or their kids back home, but he never actually participated. Matt tried to initiate conversations about their personal lives multiple times. He was never successful. 

After a while Matt stopped trying – Kenny… he didn’t seem outwardly sad, but there was something wrong in his face, like he was biting down on his own tongue but tried to not let it on. Matt really didn’t want to see that kind of look on his friends’ face. 

A while later Nick randomly, during dinner after a hard-fought match, started talking about a four way match he wrestled years ago where Ibushi was one of the participants. When Nick gushed about a sequence between El Generico and Ibushi, which apparently had been incredible, Kenny face slowly started to morph into the same pinched expression as all those times before. 

Matt quickly tried to change the topic. 

All his suspicions were confirmed when one of their flights got cancelled. Usually flying from one city to another in Japan wasn’t too bad, but after a fourteen-hour travel day which should have been only four, all three of them were completely exhausted. When they finally boarded the plane, Kenny immediately passed out. 

A while later, he started talking in his sleep. Most of it seemed to be random words, mostly Japanese for some reason. As time went on, he appeared to get more and more agitated, making small distressed noises, without ever waking up. Before Matt could debate on whether he should wake him up, Kenny started talking again. 

Matt certainly didn’t have a moment of clairvoyance where he suddenly understood Japanese, but he was able to pick Ibushi’s name out of… something that sounded like a plea. When Kenny let out another pained noise, Matt had heard enough. 

Gently taking hold of Kenny’s shoulder and shaking it, he tried to wake him up. 

“Kenny? Hey buddy, wake up. Kenny. Whatever it is, it’s just a dream.” 

Kenny startled awake after a couple of seconds, staring at Matt with wide eyes. For once, there was no mask in place, concealing Kenny’s true feelings. 

Matt had never seen Kenny look this sad before. 

Kenny quickly averted his eyes and tensed up when Matt kept staring back, like he was waiting for all kinds of invasive questions. Not wanting to make him even more uncomfortable, Matt just patted his arm kind of awkwardly and turned his head the other direction, acting like this wasn’t a big deal for either of them. 

But Matt’s mind was made up. Nothing and nobody that caused one of his friends this much grief could be any good. 

When Ibushi approached Kenny after the G1 final in 2017, Matt really didn’t want them to interact with each other at all. Kenny didn’t need this right now. But there wasn't really anything he could do to stop it, so him and Nick at least tried to keep the journalists at bay to give Kenny an illusion of privacy. 

Whatever they said to each other, Matt couldn’t hear it. But whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be anything good, because Kenny stalked away after a couple of seconds, throwing the towel on the ground, heavily limping. Ibushi’s face didn’t seem to betray any kind of emotion when Matt and him locked eyes for a second. Didn’t he care at all about the grief he was causing?

When he saw Nick hurry after Kenny, Matt started to move as well. He looked back one last time in suspicion, then turned around and tried to catch up with the other two. When they were back in their locker room, he tried to approach him. 

“Kenny?” Matt asked hesitantly. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Kenny limped into the bathroom, effectively ending the conversation before it could even start. Matt sighed. 

When Kenny shoved him down to the ground, just after Kenny had lost his US Title, Matt knew that he had to remove himself from the situation before he did something that he would regret. So, neither him nor his brother found out what had happened until much later. Matt watched the video of their reunion on his Twitter feed in disbelief. 

Everything came to a head in a random locker room after a show. Things had been wonky between the three of them for weeks, but Matt assumed that all involved parties wanted to resolve their issues as quickly as possible. Make peace.

But when the long awaited conversation started, he was met with incomprehension at first. So, before Matt knew what was even going on, he was screaming in Kenny’s face, all of his pent up rage came spilling out and so did his anger towards Ibushi. 

The “Where was he?” was supposed to be a legit question that demanded an answer. When he looked back into Kenny’s eyes though, he knew that the conversation was over. Ibushi looked like he hadn’t understood him in the first place. 

He wouldn’t get an answer. Nick ushered him out of the room. 

So now here he was. In the ring with one of his best friends, reunited. 

He just. 

Didn’t get Kenny and Kota. 

When Kenny was doing his promo and thanking the crowd for coming, Matt made up his mind. If something happened between the two of them that could hurt Kenny, he would interfere without any regrets. 

It was a group effort to usher Kenny back to the interview table. As soon as the post-show comments with the journalists were done and Kenny tried to get up, his body seemed to give up on him. Before either one of the Bucks could get to Kenny though, Ibushi had already caught him and was busy trying to sling an arm over his shoulder, heaving him back up onto his feet. 

When he was secured, Ibushi plucked the title from Kenny’s arm and before Matt could say anything, had shoved the belt into Nick’s hands without a second glance and already started to walk with Kenny, trusting the two of them to follow. Somewhat skeptical, Matt followed. 

When Matt walked through the door, Kenny had already been placed on one of the benches, Ibushi kneeling before him and unlacing one of his boots. Nick was busy putting away the title. 

Matt slowly approached Kenny and laid a hand on his shoulder, trying not to look at Ibushi next to him and probably failing. 

“How you feeling, bud? Think you can get up and shower?” Matt asked gently. 

Kenny nodded gingerly after a moment. Matt opened his mouth to start trying to coax Kenny up into a standing position, but then Ibushi looked up and said something to Kenny. 

Kenny giggled and nodded again. Ibushi pulled Kenny’s second boot off and got back to his feet. Then he put his arms under Kenny’s armpits and essentially deadlifted him until Kenny could stand up straight. Kenny dopily smiled at him. Ibushi… actually smiled back at Kenny after a moment, his whole face changing with it. 

Ibushi was still smiling when he turned to Matt and pushed past him, Kenny by his side, heading for the shower stalls. Matt stared at both of their backs, confused.

Ibushi didn’t come out again after a minute. He and Kenny emerged together ten minutes later, after Matt and Nick had everything packed up already and were waiting on them. After Kenny put on a shirt and his jacket, Ibushi still hovering and smoothing down his shirt, trying to fix Kenny’s hair, they were ready to leave. 

Matt didn’t know how to feel about all this.

The drive back to the hotel went on in similar fashion. Kenny seemed spaced out, so he and Nick handled the luggage, while Ibushi handled Kenny. After the door of the hotel room was finally closed, a realization seemed to hit Kenny suddenly, causing him to sink down right in the middle of the room onto the carpet. 

Ibushi seemed to be faster than the both of them yet again, immediately crouching down beside Kenny and taking Kenny’s face into his hands. 

“I did it. I actually managed to do it,” Kenny started babbling, close to tears, mixing up languages left and right. 

Everyone in the room seemed to get the idea though. Matt could hear Nick beside him, congratulating Kenny again. Matt’s focus was on the couple, where Ibushi smiled at Kenny again, fond as anything, and pulled him into a hug, both of them still on the ground. 

They didn’t let go of each other for a very long moment, both of the Bucks looking on. Nick looked happy for Kenny. 

Kenny let go first, pulling his head back to rest his forehead on Ibushi’s. Ibushi gave him a peck on the mouth, then his cheeks and his nose, again and again until Kenny started laughing and pushed himself back up onto his feet. Ibushi’s face was shining with happiness. 

Matt’s determination to be skeptical of Ibushi cracked a bit.

Kenny, back up, swayed immediately a bit but looked back at the brothers. 

“Just put it somewhere next to the couch, I’ll deal with it in a second,” Kenny mumbled, gesturing to his suitcase, looking spaced out as hell again. Ibushi tutted at him, deciding that this was not worth having a conversation about and took Kenny by his hand, interlacing their fingers and leading him to the bed. 

Kota flopped down onto it, Kenny right on top of him with no hesitation, both of them still in their sweatpants, Kenny apparently trusting Ibushi’s decision to go to sleep right then. 

He did. Kenny shifted around for a couple of seconds, stilled when he put his head on Ibushi’s chest, his breathing instantly slowing down and his eyes already closed. 

Ibushi buried one of his hands in Kenny’s hair and slung the other one around his midsection, somehow pulling Kenny even closer. He looked down into Kenny’s face with the gentlest look in his eyes. Matt probably had never seen anyone look this content with their life, ever. 

Ibushi looked up at both of them after a moment. 

“Thank you,” he said in heavily accented English. Nick nodded and told him not to worry. Ibushi smiled again, probably for the millionth time today, holding out his hand for a handshake and a fist bump. Nick reciprocated after a moment. 

Somehow, Ibushi seemed to know that Matt wouldn’t be up for one, so he just looked at Matt and gave him a satisfied nod, the corners of his mouth still upturned. Kenny started snoring softly right then.

The brothers let themselves out quietly.

It seemed like there was a lot Matt still had to learn about Kenny and Kota.


End file.
